I really didn’t have money on Proton crashing and burning as a trusted community partner and company due to leadership AI psychosis this rapidly.
-
If you use and particularly, pay for anything they make, you need to read this. It’s one of the worst I’ve seen even in the 20s.
🫠 I don’t think they’re recovering without the board removing executive leadership. https://www.404media.co/manifestos-fear-and-loser-thinking-inside-protons-ai-reckoning/
@hacks4pancakes I had already planned an exit strategy a couple of years ago after some of his outspoken politics that made the news right after I prepaid years ... but this is just nuts.
Overall I was happy with the service though. Email worked. I had very few people I sent emails to on the service and none that I used keys with outside of it. I also appreciated that they kept expanding their offering. I never used their AI, it felt too gimmicky.
Fastmail is on the short list. For now ...
-
We are continually seeing this phenomenon in our societies, our politics, our families, our workplaces.
I don't _really_ wanna switch topics or fall into hyperbole but things like this AI _craze_ when combined with the other issues facing the _species_... This is sufficient to qualify for a Great Filter scale impact.
How's that for hyperbole?
@401matthall 'how's that for hyperbowl?'. Pretty hyper, but I agree.
*edit: I realise the quote should say bole not bowl. I'm not gonna correct it because it made me laugh. -
@hacks4pancakes
Well, crud! There goes a decade-long relationship.
Now what? Is there no safe harbor from this plague? Where can we turn for secure services free from AI slopfusion?@Cotopaxi ditto. Where to go for email and stuff that isn't toxic? Also, I'll need to tell everyone that it's not @proton anymore just like I had to with Gmail and hotmail. Shoulda got my own domain years ago...
@hacks4pancakes -
@Ali @hacks4pancakes email is a real painful one. Self hosting is really questionable (source: I've been bitten doing it at a small company and still do it personally, I can't recommend it if you want things to get reliably delivered. Although that can be broken everywhere).
It would be nice to kill email.
It isn't happening though
@LovesTha @Ali @hacks4pancakes agree. i've self-hosted email. it's a major struggle.
-
If you use and particularly, pay for anything they make, you need to read this. It’s one of the worst I’ve seen even in the 20s.
🫠 I don’t think they’re recovering without the board removing executive leadership. https://www.404media.co/manifestos-fear-and-loser-thinking-inside-protons-ai-reckoning/
@hacks4pancakes fuck this ceo, like with a rusty pole.
“Perception is more important than truth, the truth doesn’t matter if you don’t win on perception.” - CEO of proton
nice.
-
@hacks4pancakes Yikes! Can I please just get a Google-like suite of tools without the AI obsessed techbro bullshit?
@humanisttrek @hacks4pancakes If you host your own or pay for nextcloud, that's not a bad way to go
-
If you use and particularly, pay for anything they make, you need to read this. It’s one of the worst I’ve seen even in the 20s.
🫠 I don’t think they’re recovering without the board removing executive leadership. https://www.404media.co/manifestos-fear-and-loser-thinking-inside-protons-ai-reckoning/
@hacks4pancakes Andy yen needs to be sacked asap
-
If you use and particularly, pay for anything they make, you need to read this. It’s one of the worst I’ve seen even in the 20s.
🫠 I don’t think they’re recovering without the board removing executive leadership. https://www.404media.co/manifestos-fear-and-loser-thinking-inside-protons-ai-reckoning/
I really hope they remove him and put in someone sane. He has been nothing but trouble for years. It's really unfair for the company to have to put out the fires he causes every single year.
-
@hacks4pancakes This really sucks. I've been moving away from Google services as much as possible and purchased a subscription for Proton Unlimited back in March. Guess I need to start looking for alternatives. I have a couple custom domains. Been using Proton Drive for my photo backups from my GrapheneOS Pixel. Use calendar app. Not much else. Any recommended alternatives that are privacy friendly, no AI BS, etc?
@mrclark
You were probably asking Lesley, as some others did. If I'm out of place, I'll go ahead and shut up.Otherwise, if I may add my personal experience: I think, regardless of what platform we choose, we shouldn't "put all our eggs in one basket". That's what Google, Microslop, and now Proton have taught us (not saying they're all the same). That way, if we find out the software we're using is in any way corrupt, the damage is more containable.
-
@hacks4pancakes Andy yen needs to be sacked asap
@winterknight1337 @hacks4pancakes in the balls, right??? or the other sacked?
-
I really didn’t have money on Proton crashing and burning as a trusted community partner and company due to leadership AI psychosis this rapidly. It’s incredibly disappointing and a huge loss.
@hacks4pancakes
If you just need a secure email, why not try Tuta? [1] The mobile app is not as flashy as Proton's but it works and I've been quite happy with it.I believe they have a rather strict no-AI stance too.
Also the paid plan lets you create 15(?) different emails pointing to the same inbox. It's pretty useful when you don't want to use the same emal everywhere.
[1] tuta.com
-
@mrclark
You were probably asking Lesley, as some others did. If I'm out of place, I'll go ahead and shut up.Otherwise, if I may add my personal experience: I think, regardless of what platform we choose, we shouldn't "put all our eggs in one basket". That's what Google, Microslop, and now Proton have taught us (not saying they're all the same). That way, if we find out the software we're using is in any way corrupt, the damage is more containable.
@mrclark
I have been using Proton but also been looking for alternatives wherever possible.
Ente, for photos (if I could afford a bigger server, I would self-host it),
CryptPad for storing, editing and sharing documents online,
Tuta for mail and calendar (not yet but soon),
Wireguard for VPN, and
Joplin for notes.
CryptPad, Wireguard and Joplin I self-host them.Ente technically uses AI but it's locally run, to recognize faces in the pictures. It's not an LLM or generative, as far as I know, so I'm fine with it. Plus, it's totally optional (opt-in). The other apps, nothing that I know of.
-
@401matthall 'how's that for hyperbowl?'. Pretty hyper, but I agree.
*edit: I realise the quote should say bole not bowl. I'm not gonna correct it because it made me laugh.I definitely respect this choice.
-
@hacks4pancakes Warning signs began appearing shortly after Proton's appearance in the states.
Very troubling.
I hope it is not a trend.
@sasutina13 @hacks4pancakes Question: my college girlfriend was using it in Madison, WI in 2002. Which warning signs did she not see?
-
@hacks4pancakes how little love do they have over doing things right, another Mozilla in our hands
@ozamidas I have to object because while I'm not happy with Firefox, they aren't close to this level of scorched earth insanity.
-
If you use and particularly, pay for anything they make, you need to read this. It’s one of the worst I’ve seen even in the 20s.
🫠 I don’t think they’re recovering without the board removing executive leadership. https://www.404media.co/manifestos-fear-and-loser-thinking-inside-protons-ai-reckoning/
@hacks4pancakes It tells me how jaded I am that I read the comments he made and had to re-read the article to see what's controversial or out of the ordinary for execs.
-
If you use and particularly, pay for anything they make, you need to read this. It’s one of the worst I’ve seen even in the 20s.
🫠 I don’t think they’re recovering without the board removing executive leadership. https://www.404media.co/manifestos-fear-and-loser-thinking-inside-protons-ai-reckoning/
But thinking about it, the red flags were there.
-
@mrclark
I have been using Proton but also been looking for alternatives wherever possible.
Ente, for photos (if I could afford a bigger server, I would self-host it),
CryptPad for storing, editing and sharing documents online,
Tuta for mail and calendar (not yet but soon),
Wireguard for VPN, and
Joplin for notes.
CryptPad, Wireguard and Joplin I self-host them.Ente technically uses AI but it's locally run, to recognize faces in the pictures. It's not an LLM or generative, as far as I know, so I'm fine with it. Plus, it's totally optional (opt-in). The other apps, nothing that I know of.
@Mx_Shankly Have you looked at Zimbra? Personally I run my own domain but my company (Symas) uses Zimbra. Not coincidentally, Zimbra is a heavy user of OpenLDAP...
-
@hacks4pancakes It tells me how jaded I am that I read the comments he made and had to re-read the article to see what's controversial or out of the ordinary for execs.
@jsmall I mean everything is terrible in 2026 but this is noteworthy ugly.
-
I really didn’t have money on Proton crashing and burning as a trusted community partner and company due to leadership AI psychosis this rapidly. It’s incredibly disappointing and a huge loss.
@hacks4pancakes sounds like he has AFP - AI FOMO Psychosis.
